Music is a mystery for people who play it, write it, listen to it, and write about it. The only thing I can really do when I try to say something about music is assume.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Way Classical Music Looked 50 years ago

All the internet jabber about the place of "classical music" in our modern world inspired me to think about how things have changed for the better during the past 50 years.

1. 50 years ago the smallest violins were quarter-sized instruments. They were rare. After the Suzuki brothers came on the scene, stringed instruments started to be available in sizes so small that children could begin playing at two or three instead of at six or seven.

2. Most of the music that was played in the early 1960s, with very few exceptions, was written by men.

1 comment:

While it's understandable, yours is a very performer-oriented list. There are probably as many if not more improvements from a listener or audience-member's perspective, including some of what you've already listed, but I would easier and wider access to an incredible amount of music from many sources, both live and recorded. Spotify, YouTube, and yes, blogs, provide so many ways to learn about and enjoy classical music that weren't possible 50 years ago.

I also think today's composers benefit from being less tied to the traditions of the past and/or the compulsion to rebel against them. Lou Harrison's breadth of influences is now the norm, and today's musicians have 50+ years of living in a pop-dominated culture as well as more exposure to music from other cultures which I think is starting to produce some pretty great music.

I am active as a composer, a violist, a violinist, a recorder player, and as a teacher. I began my professional musical life as a flutist, and spent a lot of quality time as a baroque flutist, but I no longer have my baroque flute. Now my modern flute spends most of its time tucked away in a drawer, while my violin, viola, and my viola d'amore are often tucked under my chin.